Ireland have been knocked out of the Cricket World Cup Qualifier at the earliest possible point after losing by 133 runs to Sri Lanka at Bulawayo, meaning that there will be at least a 12-year gap between appearances for Ireland at the men’s World Cup.

After defeats to Oman and Scotland, Ireland had to beat Sri Lanka to keep their faint hopes of World Cup qualification alive but Andrew Balbirnie’s team were comprehensively outplayed by Sri Lanka. Dimuth Karunaratne’s first ODI hundred laid the foundations for Sri Lanka to post 325, a total Ireland never seriously threatened to chase down.

Wanindu Hasaranga took his third five-wicket haul in as many games as Ireland fell well short of the target. Ireland’s third defeat from as many games means that they are no longer able to qualify for the Super Six stage of the Qualifier, from which the top two sides will take the ninth and tenth available spots at the 2023 World Cup.

Ireland will now have to wait until at least 2027 before they next appear in a men’s 50-0ver World Cup, having previously enjoyed three successful back-to-back campaigns from 2007 to 2015 that saw them beat a Full Member nation – while they were Associates – at every tournament. The 2023 World Cup, like the 2019 edition, is a 10-team tournament. From 1996 to 2015, the World Cup saw between 12 and 16 teams take part; in 2027, it is set to expand back to a 14-team competition as it was in 2003, 2011 and 2015.

Following their defeat, Balbirnie said: “Hugely disappointing not to get to the Super Sixes but you’ve got to move on. We are going to pick ourselves up quickly, whenever you play for Ireland there’s a lot of pride regardless of the situation and that’s what we’ve got to play for in the next game.”

Ireland have another World Cup qualification event coming up shortly after the culmination of the ongoing Qualifier in Zimbabwe. The T20 World Cup Europe Qualifier takes place in Scotland next month with the top two sides qualifying for next year’s 20-team T20 World Cup. Ireland, alongside Scotland, will be strong favourites to qualify from the event.

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